Is there a fail-safe way of attaching a HDD to a Pi? The last time I tried, something went wrong with the HDD, remote access failed (kernel panic?) and I had to disconnect the HDD and power cycle the Pi. I now have a second Pi for such borderline projects, but I'd rather still have remote access to it if the HDD fails again. Is this possible?
Little in life is 'fail-safe'. If a USB drive won't work for you, you might try NAS.
assuming you attached it via USB, was the HDD self powered? In case it tried to draw it's power from the PI a crash is not a surprise.
It had an independent power supply. I may attach the HDD to the second Pi, so that if there's another problem with the HDD, Pi-2 crashes and not Pi-1. If I'm right, Pi-1 will be able to test that Pi-2 and its HDD are available: if they are not, Pi-1 can use its memory card (and continue working) until I fix the problem.
a USB [to SATA presumably] 500GB Toshiba is more reliable on the rPi than on 2 x86 PCs; perhaps because rPi hs more modern drivers.
To handle the current, the rPi needs to boot with the Toshiba connected. Then I plug the keybrd - after it's booted. And try to manage without a mouse. It's more reliable on the rPI, accessed from the x86-PC via an eth0 cable than plugged directly to the PC.
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